Nice to see another one of my images out in the wild, from the NZSO National Youth Orchestra rehearsals last year at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington. 

This was one of those times that staying in one place for a while really worked out - I’d been photographing this young violinist when she was practicing during a break, full of concentration and lost in thought; then someone behind me made her laugh, and just in that instant she was full of, well, what you can see.  Joy, happiness, enthusiasm, music, everything good. 

I’d already taken probably two dozen images of her, but this one was what I had been hoping for all along.  And the light was nice, bouncing back into her face from the sheet music in front of her, and the background was clean and uncluttered - not always the case when a whole orchestra’s on stage, I can tell you - everything worked.

Here’s the photo before this one - which I still like, but the one above it definitely the hero image from that day!